Of all the bugs this game has this one bothers me the least,at least when it does it the thing works,unlike the rest of the time when RNG says "screw you,no damage for you!!! Don't care you shot that big flat turret side or rear of that tank!!!!! You MUST lose now!!!!"

If you wanted to be rewarded for using your head and flanking, go play War Thunder. Penetrating with an APHE shell against side armor tends to be more devastating than penetrating frontally since the shell is more directly centered in the tank when it explodes, normally killing all the vehicle's crew (most shells are easily capable of killing 4 crew members; some shells in the 105mm+ caliber can kill the crew of a tank with 6 or 7 crew because of the radius of the explosion and proceeding shrapnel of the shell.